1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to power distribution systems, and more particularly, to mapping power line connections within a power distribution system.
2. Description of Background
A data center is a facility for housing mass storage systems and other computer systems, as well as their associated information technology (IT) equipment. A data center typically includes numerous multi-shelf cabinets or racks each holding multiple devices or enclosures such as servers, disk drives, and other computer devices, and can occupy one room of a building, one or more floors, or an entire building. Data centers also generally include redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (for example, air conditioning and fire suppression), and special security devices. Because companies are increasingly reliant on information systems for running their operations, IT operations are a crucial aspect of most organizational functions. If a system becomes unavailable, company operations may be impaired or stopped completely. Therefore, strict management of power and cooling for data center operation is an important issue as it becomes necessary to provide a reliable IT infrastructure with minimal disruption.
The power requirements for data centers are facilitated by power distribution systems, which are complex systems in many respects: multiple sources of power, multiple power consuming devices, and multiple power paths to distribute power from one specific power source to a specific power consuming device. Energy-aware computing encompasses efficiency as well as detection of power consumption levels and temperatures that are outside of operating limits and reduction of system capacity and power use to bring these quantities back into compliance. Lower power consumption results in lower heat dissipation, which increases system stability, and less energy use, which saves money and reduces the burden on the environment. For the IT industry, adequately cooling data center equipment (particularly servers) is an issue, both locally within a device chassis, and more globally among racks in data centers.
A power distribution map illustrates, from an IT perspective, how power flows through the physical infrastructure. A challenge in generating such a map of the power distribution components is determining what IT resources (for example, servers, network equipment, data storage products, and other devices) are plugged into what particular power input lines and other power equipment (for example, Power Distribution Units (PDUs) and Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs). Making such a determination becomes increasingly difficult as the number of power devices and IT resources increase and as the system becomes more and more distributed.
Presently, however, there are no solutions to providing a complete end-to-end power distribution map other than those that require a manual tracing of the line cords and recording of the serial numbers from every device. This can not only be extremely time-consuming, it can become increasingly susceptible to errors as a system becomes larger and more complex, and it can be nearly impossible for a large data center with thousands of devices.